Method and apparatus for delivery of digital images over a computer network

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for transmitting data, such as class 1, 2, or 13 facsimile image data streams, over Internet Global Area Networks. In one embodiment of the invention related to the transmission of facsimile data, a first device converts local facsimile image data streams into electronic data streams, transmits the data stream over the network, to a second device at the remote facsimile machine which reconverts the electronic data to facsimile image data and prints it out on said remote facsimile machine.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This is a division of application Ser. No. 09/506,925 filed Feb.18, 2000 which is a division of application Ser. No. 09/184,972 filedNov. 3, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,679, which was a division ofapplication Ser. No. 08/555,911 filed Nov. 13, 1995.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus forsecurely transforming and transmitting electronic information from oneprotocol form to another protocol form for delivery over apacket-switched network. The invention has particular application wherethe information pertains to the visual perception of images, and wherethe information must be delivered securely in an environment where itsreceipt and authenticity can not be disputed or repudiated.

[0003] The sending of visually perceptible images is well known in theprior art, the earliest examples being those of the inventions of thefacsimile machine.

[0004] In recent years the facsimile machine has become a common devicein businesses both large and small and also in many homes. In 1966 theso called Group or Class 1 standards where adopted and with that camethe start of the present popularity of the device. Although it tookabout six minutes to transmit a single page and the resolution was poorit was a big improvement over mail especially for internationalcommunications. In 1978 Class 2 standards appeared followed in 1980 bythe Class 3, which machines were much faster and had much betterresolution. These latter machines take a bout 30 seconds to transmit apage of text.

[0005] Ubiquitous physical stand alone fax machines remain the normtoday for every day transmission of written documents and images butlack the ability to directly connect to and send/receive such documentsacross Internet global area packet switched networks. The term “internetglobal area packet switched networks” is used herein in the genericsense of interconnected regional, national and international networksover which information in electronic form is transmitted. The “Internet”currently is perhaps the best known of these networks.

[0006] While fax machines are now thought of as universal all class 1,2, and 3 machines are currently direct telephonic connection devices andas such acquire toll charges for their use over the telephone companiesswitches. This of course means that the sender must pay intrastate andinterstate long distance toll charges for the time it takes to transmitthe desired communication, which in a busy office can amount to hundredsof dollars a month and in an international company to many thousands ofdollars. Todays common fax machines cannot communicate directly overinternet global area packet switched networks nor can they send andreceive electronic mail or web page formats Security of internet globalarea networks communications also is currently difficult to achieve andensure. The ability to definitively verify the identity of the sender ofa fax transmission is often difficult if not impossible to achieve. Alsoif absolute security is required expensive encryption/decryption devicesmust be employed to communicate by fax over public telephone lines.Secure private lines can be used but are expensive and limited in theaddresses that can be accessed.

[0007] The ability to choose when to receive fax transmissions and todecide which ones to print and which ones to discard is not readilyavailable to the average fax user. Negotiating fax transmissions,particularly on a multi use single telephone line, often requiresancillary communications to achieve; i.e. telephone call to agree onwhen to “turn on the fax machine”, priority, re-transmission on “busy”,undeliverable, etc.

[0008]FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a conventional facsimile machine asknown in the art. The machine includes a transmit section and a receivesection. The transmit section is used for transmitting image data from ascanned document to a remote facsimile machine and the receive sectionis used for receiving image data from a remote machine for printing atan internal print station.

[0009] In state of the art facsimile machines, the transmitter section500 (see FIG. 10) typically includes a scanner device 501 which scansthe page to be transmitted in accordance with a predetermined format.Scanner device 501 is often formed of one or more charge coupled devices(CCD) and produces an electrical signal which correspond to the image onthe page. The scanning process is achieved by dividing the page intouniform lines of uniform pixel elements.

[0010] In a black and white facsimile transmission, each pixelrepresents a black or white dot on the page. The more pixels, per lineand the closer the lines are together, the higher the resolution of thefacsimile image which can be transmitted. In Group 3 facsimile machines,for example, each line contains 1728 pixels. A typical page containsabout 2200 scan lines. The actual number of scan lines will depend, ofcourse, on the length of the page. The page is read by the scanningdevice moving line-by-line down the page and providing a correspondingdigital electrical signal for the picture information native facsimileimage data at each of the pixel locations. In standard Group 3 Facsimileequipment the picture information is 1 dimensionally compressed using amodified Huffman run length coding scheme.

[0011] With reference again to FIG. 10, the digital signal from scanningdevice 501 is supplied to digital-to-analogue (D/A) converter or modem502. The D/A converter 502 converts the digital signal to acorresponding analogue signal in the form of audio 450 Hz to 4950 Hzfrequency tones. The audio tones are then transmitted over telephoneline 503 to the remote facsimile machine. The remote facsimile machinecontains a receiver section 510. Receiver section 510 receives the audiofrequency tones from telephone line 503. The tones are converted in tocorresponding digital signals by analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter ormodem 511. The digital output from A/D converter 511 is supplied to aprint station 512 where the facsimile image is printed for the user tosee.

[0012] In cases where security and privacy is required, the facsimiletransmission can be encrypted or scrambled. Encryption techniquestypically are used to secure digital signals while scrambling techniquesare used to secure analogue signals.

[0013] The advent of the computer age brought with it the need in manyinstances to provide some mechanism for protecting the privacy ofinformation transferred electronically. The problem was identified asearly as the mid 1960s and one of the first cipher codes to protect dataemerged in 1971. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), as well asothers, recognized the need for a more secure code which could withstandsophisticated crypto analytical attacks. In response to this need, theData Encryption Standard (DES) was developed and became the officialcivilian cipher of the U.S. government in June of 1977.

[0014] The DES specifies an algorithm to be implemented in electronichardware for the purpose of cryptographic protection of computer data.The computer data may be cryptograhphically protected using the DESalgorithm in conjunction with a key. The key is generated in such a waythat each of the 56 bits used directly by the algorithm are random andthe 8 error-detection bits are set to make the parity of each 8-bit byteof the key odd, i.e., there is an odd number of “1s” in each 8-bit byte.Each member of a group of authorized users of encrypted computer datamust have the key that was used to encipher data in order to use thedata. This key, held by each member in common, is used to decipher anydata received in cipher form from other members of the group. Theencryption specified in the DES standard is commonly know among thoseusing the standard. The unique key chosen for use in a particularapplication makes the results of encrypting data, using the algorithm,unique. Selection of a different key causes the cipher, which isproduced for any given set of inputs, to be different. The cryptographicsecurity of the data depends on the security and key length provided forthe key that is used to encipher and decipher the data.

[0015] Data can be recovered from a cipher only by using the exact samekey that was used to encipher it. Unauthorized recipients of the cipher,who know the algorithm but do not have the correct key, cannot easilyderive the original data algorithmically. The more secure the keysalgorithm and the longer its bit length the more difficult it becomes to“crack” the keys coding scheme. Use of “one time pad” keys furtherdeters unauthorized decryption of key encoded messages. On the otherhand, anyone who does have the key and the algorithm can easily decipherthe cipher and obtain the original data. A standard algorithm, which isbased on a public/private key, thus provides a basis for exchangingencrypted data and the known system, which is often identified in theart as a Public Key Infrastructure, becomes a standard means of securedata.

[0016] While various encryption techniques can be used to secure digitalsignals, analogue signals are made secure by scrambling the signalwaveform. Scrambling approaches include inverting the wave form,shifting the bias level of the signal, changing the time base for aportion of the signal and reordering portions of the signal, all inaccordance with a predetermined scrambling format and scrambling key.Descrambling is achieved by reversing the scrambling process at thereceiver end in accordance with the scrambling key.

[0017] With reference again to FIG. 10, the transmitted facsimile imagedata may be encrypted by encryption device 504 as explained above whileit is still in digital form. Alternatively, the image data may bescrambled by scrambling device 505 after conversion to analogue form byD/A converter 502. At the receiver end, the process is reversed bydescryption device 513 or descrambling device 514 in accordance with theappropriate key.

[0018] In recognition of the growing demand for security and privacywith respect to transmission of e-mail and secure web based messagesover the Internet, a number of secure e-mail and web based standardshave been developed. One proposed such standard is “Secure/MultipurposeInternet Mail Extensions” (S/MIME). As its name implies, S/MIME is anextension of the MIME standard and provides secure transmission ofe-mail messages in the MIME format. Security is achieved by usingdigital signatures and an encryption technique such as DES as explainedabove. Other secure e-mail standards include “Privacy Enhanced Mail”(PEM), “Pretty Good Privacy” (PGP) and “MIME Object Security Service”Secure Web based security schemes SHTTP/SXML are also implemented in thepresent invention.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION

[0019] Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide amethod and apparatus that overcomes these limitations of the prior art.

[0020] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transmitting/receiving class 1, 2, and 3 fax images,optically scanned images and screen captures, over global area packetswitched networks.

[0021] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transmitting/receiving standard class 1, 2, and 3 faximages, optically scanned images and screen captures over the Internet.

[0022] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transmitting/receiving class 1, 2, and 3 fax images,optically scanned images and screen captures in a highly secure andprivate manner.

[0023] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transmitting/receiving class 1, 2, and 3 fax images,optically scanned images and screen captures from a verifiable knownspatial location.

[0024] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transmitting/receiving class 1, 2, and 3 fax images,optically scanned images and screen captures from a biometricallyverifiable person.

[0025] It is a further object of the present invention to provide aneconomical device that can be easily connected to present class 1, 2,and 3 fax machines, optical scanners and screen capture methods and thatwill enable them to communicate over internet global area packetswitched networks.

[0026] It is a further object of the present invention to provide aneconomical device that can be easily connected to present class 1, 2,and 3 fax machines, optical scanners and screen capture methods thatprovides a built in electronic mail agent and means for 2 dimensionallycompressing and selectively transforming the image data stream into atleast the following Protocols; IPv4 and IPv6, e-mail protocolsSMTP/POP3/MIME, World Wide Web Protocols HTTP/HTML/XML, File Formatprotocols TIFF/TIFF-FX/JPEG/JPEG2000/MPG and Tcp and UDP formats and PKIsecurity encryption protocols Rijndael/DES/S-MIME/PGP/RSA/SET and webbased security protocols S-HTTP/SXML/ for transmission/reception overthe internet global area packet switched networks.

[0027] It is a further object of the present invention to provide adevice that can easily be connected to class 1, 2, and 3 fax machinesthat allows standard non-facsimile e-mail to be printed out thereon.

[0028] It is a further object of the present invention to provide adevice that can easily be connected to class 1, 2, and 3 fax machinesthat allows standard non-facsimile web pages to be printed out thereon.

[0029] It is a still further object of the present invention to providea device that can be easily connected to standard class 1, 2, and 3 faxmachines, optical scanners and screen capture methods to convert theimage data stream to MIME enabled e-mail format fortransmission/reception with similarly equipped fax machines and e-mailcapable computer terminals over the Internet. It is a still furtherobject of the present invention to provide a device that can be easilyconnected to standard class 1, 2, and 3 fax machines, optical scannersand screen capture methods to convert the image data stream to TCP andUDP enabled format for direct IP address transmission/reception withsimilarly equipped fax machines, printers, image rendering machines andcapable computer terminals over the Internet.

[0030] It is a still further object of the present invention to providea device that can be easily connected to standard class 1, 2, and 3 faxmachines, optical scanners and screen capture methods to convert theimage data stream to HTTP enabled Web Based format fortransmission/reception with similarly equipped fax machines, printers,image rendering machines and Web capable computer terminals over theInternet.

[0031] It is a still further object of the present invention to providea device that can be easily connected to standard class 1, 2, and 3 faxmachines, optical scanners and screen capture methods to convert theimage data stream to XML enabled Web Based format fortransmission/reception with similarly equipped fax machines withsimilarly equipped fax machines, printers, image rendering machines andWeb capable computer terminals over the Internet.

[0032] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for uniquely identifying the geo centric location of thesending and receiving apparatus It is another object of the presentinvention to provide a method and apparatus for uniquely identifying thebiometrics of the sending and receiving parties.

[0033] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transforming electronic data from one transmissionspecification to another for sending over a computer network.

[0034] It is a further object of the present invention to provide amethod and apparatus for transforming electronic data from onetransmission specification to another for sending over a computernetwork, wherein the transformation is accomplished in a network router.

[0035] It is a further object of the present invention to provide amethod and apparatus for transforming electronic data from onetransmission specification to another for sending over a computernetwork, wherein the transformation is accomplished in a network server.

[0036] It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus for transforming electronic data from one transmissionspecification to another for sending over a computer network, whereinthe transformation is accomplished in a network device.

[0037] It is a still further object of the present invention to providea method and apparatus for implementing the present invention over landline as well as wireless network architectures.

[0038] These and other and further objects of the present invention areaccomplished in one embodiment of the present invention by a devicehaving signal recognition means, a data store and forward buffer,protocol conversion means, an electronic mail agent, management andoutput means, compression/decompression means, encryption/decryptionmeans, and software for accomplishing the desired transmission of faximages, optically scanned images and screen captures over internetglobal area packet switched networks.

[0039] These and other and further objects of the present invention areaccomplished in another embodiment of the present invention by a devicehaving signal recognition means, a data store and forward buffer,protocol conversion means to TCP and UDP, a Direct IP addressing means,management and output means, compression/decompression means,encryption/decryption means, and software for accomplishing the desiredtransmission of fax images, optically scanned images and screen capturesover internet global area packet switched networks.

[0040] These and other and further objects of the present invention arealso accomplished in another embodiment of the present invention by adevice having signal recognition means, a data store and forward buffer,protocol conversion means, an Web Based user agent, management andoutput means, compression/decompression means, encryption/decryptionmeans, and software for accomplishing the desired transmission of faximages, optically scanned images and screen captures over internetglobal area packet switched networks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041]FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of variousembodiments of the present invention;

[0042]FIG. 2 is a pictorial view of a system according to the presentinvention;

[0043]FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the system of FIG. 1;

[0044]FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram of the “user ecom” block ofFIG. 2;

[0045] FIGS. 5-8 are flow diagrams of the various operational modes ofthe present invention;

[0046]FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram of an embodiment of the presentinvention showing the functional components thereof; and

[0047]FIG. 10 is a view of a keypad for controlling and operating thepresent invention;

[0048]FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a the transmitter/receiver sectionsof a conventional facsimile machine;

[0049]FIG. 12 is a further block diagram of the system of the presentinvention;

[0050] FIGS. 13-16 are block diagrams of various implementations ofelectronic document transmission over of computer network in accordancewith the present invention;

[0051] FIGS. 17-28 illustrate various embodiments of devices for thesending of documents over a computer network;

[0052] FIGS. 29-30 illustrate keyboard arrangements which may be used inapparatus which implement the present invention;

[0053]FIG. 31-34 are further pictorial views of various embodiments ofthe present invention; and

[0054] FIGS. 35-47 illustrate the present invention in a gateway.

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

[0055] Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown a system 10 fortransmitting/receiving a fax over the internet global area networks 12.A local fax machine 14 is connected by line 15 to a signal manipulationdevice 16 which is in turn connected to a plain old telephone (POTS)line 18 which is terminated in an electronic mail agent server 20 suchas a commercial or public server which in turn is connected to orresident on the internet global area network 12. A remote electronicmail agent server 22 resident on the internet global area networks 12 ata remote location is connected over a POTS line 24 to another device 16which in turn is connected to a remote fax machine 26 by another line15. Fax machines 14 and 26 can be any class 1, 2, or 3 fax machinescurrently available on the market and are connected to the usualdomestic power source at 28. Devices 16 have their own power supplies 30which convert the usual AC power to the appropriate voltages to powerthe various components within the devices 16 as will be described indetail herein.

[0056]FIG. 2 shows in block diagram form the system of FIG. 1 along witha privately accessible address book of public encryption keys 32 whichmay be accessed by direct dial up phone lines 34. In addition to theremote device 16 and fax machine 26 the remote agent server 22 may beconnected by POTS line 36 to a modem 38 and computer 40 which can storeand display the data stream available in the agent server 22.

[0057] Referring now to FIG. 3 the signal manipulation device 16 isshown in detailed block diagram form. As will be described herein device16 takes the fax image data stream, removes the 1 dimensionalcompression scheme, compresses the now native facsimile image data withany number of 2 dimensional table compression schemes, for exampleLempel-Ziv-Welch or other multi dimensional compression schemes such asharmonic matrix multiplication and wavelet transforms for Besov spacesand converts it into an e-mail or retains the T30 data stream andencapsulates in TCP and UDP compatible format for transmission over theinternet global area network 12. Device 16 will henceforth be called‘ecom’ 16. This, along with the necessary management of the entireprocedure, is accomplished in one embodiment by the device of FIG. 3.

[0058] When fax machine 14 initiates a call the ecom 16 responds as ifit were the remote fax machine called by fax 14. The usual handshake andidentification information is exchanged by recognition box 42 and whenconfirmed passed to the store and forward buffer 44. From here the datastream will be sent to the various other function within ecom 16 inaccordance with the instructions in box 42. Datacompression/decompression is usually accomplished while the data is inbuffer 44 also. Next the native facsimile data stream is converted intoelectronic mail (e-mail) format in box 46 and phone number to e-mailaddress header conversion are accomplished. Image compression includingJPEG, GIF, and LZW TIFF-F and TIFF-FX; audio and video compression suchas MPEG; and e-mail extender such as MIME/S-MIME are also accomplished,at this time. If encryption is indicated the converted data stream isdirected to encryption/decryption block 48 for coding as will bedescribed later. If coding is not indicated the data stream is passed toelectronic mail agent 50 which performs store/send user/passwordidentification functions as necessary to interface with the selectedserver 20. Electronic mail agent 50 preferably is a commercial mailagent but it may be any public or private mail agent. In one embodimentboth commercial and public electronic mail agents are provided.

[0059] As may be seen in FIGS. 8 and 9, a keypad 52 is provided to inputspecial instructions, address information and status information such as“e-mail waiting” and the like. From box 52 the converted and formatteddata stream is passed to box 54 for final mail agent server phonenumber, send/receive and connect signal functions. The data stream isthen ready to be sent dynamically to the selected local agent server 20resident on the internet global area packet switched networks 12 over aPOTS line 18.

[0060] From this point on the data stream is under the control of theusual global networks servers, managers, and providers until it reachesits destination at the remote ecom 16 connected to the addressed remotefax machine 26. The flow diagram shown in FIG. 4 illustrates thissequence of operations.

[0061] While I have shown the ecom 16 connected to the server 20 by atelephone line, to include DSL, any transport mechanism can be used totransmit the data stream to/from the internet global area networksserver 20 such as cellular, satellite, microwave, cable,broadcast andphotonic.

[0062] In the event encryption is indicated the converted data stream isrouted through box 48 from box 46 and then to electronic mail agent 50.The flow diagram in FIG. 5 illustrates this sequence.

[0063] Referring now to FIGS. 2 & 6 there is shown another embodiment ofthe present invention where the local fax machine 14 can transmit animage to a remote computer. In this configuration since the converteddata stream received at server 22 is in e-mail format it can be sentdirectly to a computer 40 which with the proper modem can store, displayand print out the transmitted document.

[0064]FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a still further embodiment of thepresent invention in which it is only desired to encrypt a conventionalfax transmission. In this configuration the ecom 16 processes, andencrypts the data stream but then bypasses the mail agent and sends thesignal directly to the POTS line which is also connected to the remoteecom 16 and fax machine 26 via standard telephone number addressing. Thedata stream is received by the remote ecom which automatically decryptsit and prints it out on the remote fax machine.

[0065]FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of the ecom 16 showing thegeneral layout and interconnection of the various components making upthe ecom 16. Lines 15 from the physical stand alone fax machines 14 and26 are connected to the bus 60 in ecom 16. Bus 60 connects all of thecomponents together and to the output POTS lines 18 or 24. Modems 62 and84 serve as input and output modems during transmission and the reversefor reception of data. CPU 72 contains the instruction sets needed torun the ecom and may be any CISC or RISC micro processor. ASIC chip 64along with programable flash EPROM 68 contain the software instructionsets for the CPU and the TCP/IP, SMTP, MTA, POP, UDP and HUDP protocolsand the algorithms for attaching the class 1, 2, and 3 fax data stream(Phase C data) to MIME enabled commercial and/or public electronic mailformat. EPROM 70 is a mail user agent that contains the commercialand/or public mail boxes and EPROM 66 is a flash EPROM containing theencryption/decryption algorithms. RAMS 74, 76, and 78 provide forstoring and forwarding data to the ASIC and CPU chips and to thefacsimile and e-mail data streams. D/A block 88 is an analog to digitalconverter which encapsulates the fax image data stream into MIME e-maildigital format and vice versa. Block 80 providescompression/decompression operations on the data streams. USART block 90is a universal asynchronous transmitter/receiver chip for transferringthe keypad 52 entered commands to the foregoing components and to thedisplays 94 and 96. which indicate system status. A voice processor chip92 and speaker 98 and auxiliary port 102 may also be provided. The faxmachine and POTS lines are connected through standard RJ11 connectors.The power supply 30, which may be housed within ecom 16 if desired asshown in FIG. 8, takes standard AC power and converts it to thenecessary line tone/ring generator, DC and other voltages necessary forrunning the ecom 16. An on/off switch 100 turns the ecom on and off.

[0066] Referring now to FIG. 9 the keypad 52 has the usual QWERTYkeyboard and the usual numerals 1 through 0. In addition there areprovided special function keys that combine several key stroke commandsof the usual computer into single stroke keys for the particularfunctions. Thus the @ key, the Dot key, for addressing e-mail; COM forcommercial, NET for network, EDU for education, ORG for otherorganizations, MIL for military, and GOV for government, provide quickaccurate domain addressing; SEND MAIL, GET MAIL, PREVIEW MAIL, DELETEMAIL, PRINT, for the obvious operations and PRIVATE for codingtransmissions are also provided.

[0067] To send a fax from a local to a remote fax machine over theinternet global area networks according to the present invention thefollowing dynamic sequence takes place:

[0068] The facsimile goes “off hook” raising the voltage on the linethat is connected to the system. The system detects the raised voltageon the line and custom software stored within RAM 202 and/or ROM 203instructs the system to generate a line tone consistent with specificcountry telephony voltage requirements and simulates a “live” connectionto a telephone central office telco switch.

[0069] Upon receipt of the facsimile transmission the remote systemstores all of the facsimiles in RAM 202. Each page of the facsimile is“de huffmanized” to remove all “inferior” data compression. Each line ofeach page of the facsimile is then un-encoded from its Run LengthEncoding (RLE) or Modified Relative Address Designate (READ), resultingin uncompressed binary machine code (logic “1s” and “0s”) that representeach bit (including white spaces) of the entire original nativefacsimile image data that was scanned by the facsimile machine Theuncompressed binary code is then compressed using 2 dimensional or otheradvanced compression algorithms that are stored in ROM 203. If thefacsimile message is to be encrypted, the compressed binary isencrypted. The encryption algorithm can be any public or secret keyencryption algorithm that is stored in ROM 203 and includes, forexample, S-MIME, S-HTTP, SXML, SET, Rijndael, PGP, DES Vernam ciphersand RSA. Additionally the multi dimensional codecs of the harmonicmatrix multiplication compression schemes available in this inventioncan be adapted to perform non-recoverable-disappearing key encryption.The transformed original facsimile is stored in RAM 202 and is insertedand identified, via the e-mail header, as a MIME compliant message andis sent to the e-mail recipient identified in the to: field of the MUAheader.

[0070] The user inputs or retrieves the IP e-mail address, that isassociated with the intended recipients phone number of the selectedremote fax machine via the keypad 52 or remotely from the flash eprom orremote data base. The LCD 94 displays, via the USART 90 thisinformation. The apparatus defaults or the user then depresses the SENDMAIL key. If native fax data is present in the memory buffer the CPUinstruction set begins conversion of the data together with the ASIC 64into packet formats. If no native fax data is present in memory then theLCD 94 displays a “waiting for fax” default message. The native faximage data data is compressed via box 80 and the CPU checks to see ifencryption is indicated. If encryption is required the CPU instructs theASIC 64 with EPROM 70 to perform the encryption and stores the result inmemory. The mail user agent and MIME type generator is then invoked bythe CPU from instructions stored in eprom<s>. The LCD 94 then indicates“mail is ready for delivery”. The user then depresses the send mail keyor the device by default executes the send mail commands. The deviceconnects to a packet switched network via the modem and sends theconverted facsimile as e-mail that was stored in the memory buffer andmaintains the buffer for a specified time length. Upon receipt of properserver Message Delivery Notification return codes that the message hasbeen received the CPU instructs the modem 84 to close and the ecom isreturned to ready for further traffic. If additional receiptnotification codes have been requested the ecom device remains openuntil the recipient codes are returned or a specified default time haselapsed. If either MDN or specified return codes are not received in atimely manner the ecom device will report that the transmission shouldbe considered failed.

[0071] At the receiving end after transmitting the internet global areapacket switched networks the data manipulation sequence in the remoteecom is essentially the reverse of that just described. In addition auser of the ecom can query its mail server to see if there is fax e-mailwaiting that could not be delivered previously. Also standard orencrypted e-mail other than converted fax image data can be printed outon a fax machine attached to an ecom device. The user presses GET MAILwhich displays the command on LCD 94 and then the CPU instructs theappropriate EPROM to retrieve the appropriate server location and tocontact same via the modem 86. Upon proper user identification by theserver if there is mail the server will send it to the MUA EPROM 70 andthe CPU will then send it to memory buffer and terminate connection tothe server. The usual “preview mail” capability can also be included inecom 16 if desired. The ecom device is also capable of being a “directdelivery” mail box such that a ecom converted message can be sentdirectly to the device. One such example is where the e-mail address ofthe recipient is a special ecom mail address that includes both therecipients phone number and unique ecom device email user identityie.50854045lldevicepenelope@ecom.net In order to provide structure andcompatibility to the format of e-mails sent across the Internet, theSimple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) was developed and adopted in Augustof 1982. A full description of the SMTP standard can found in RFC-821and RFC-822 available at many sites on the Internet.

[0072] In summary, the SMTP standard breaks an e-mail message into twoparts, a “header” and a “body”. The header contains fields of controlinformation which e-mail software can examine and use to accomplishtheir tasks in routing the e-mail. The body contains the text of themessage for the end recipient. In accordance with the SMTP standard, alldata transferred must be 7-bit US-ASCII and be divided into lines of1000 characters or less. The message may also not exceed a certainlength.

[0073] If e-mail software written for the SMTP standard encounters afield which it does not understand, the field is ignored. This attributeallows the SMTP standard to be extended by adding additional fields inorder to provide more e-mail capabilities.

[0074] While the SMTP standard was considered state-of-the-art at thetime of its adoption in 1982, the wide spread use of e-mail over theInternet as a communication mechanism for various types of informationlead to the need for a more robust and comprehensive standard. Thus, theSMTP standard was extended by the adoption of the Multipurpose InternetMail Extensions (MIME) adopted in June of 1992. MIME extends the SMTP byadding additional fields for mail message headers that describe newtypes of content and organization for messages. The MIME standard isfully describe in RFC-1521, which also is available at many sites on theInternet.

[0075] In summary, the MIME standard allows a message to contain:

[0076] Multiple objects in a single message;

[0077] Text of unlimited line and overall length;

[0078] Character sets other than US-ASCII;

[0079] Multi-font messages;

[0080] Binary or application specific fields; and

[0081] Images, audio, video and multi-media messages.

[0082] In order to accomplish the above message content, the MIMEstandard defines the following new header fields:

[0083] 1. MIME-Version header field—This field uses a version number todeclare that a message conforms to the MIME standard;

[0084] 2. Content-Type header field—This field is used to specify thetype and subtype of the data in the body of the message and defines anyencoding of the data. The content type can be:

[0085] a. text—textual information;

[0086] b. multi part—several body parts are combined into a singlemessage;

[0087] c. application—application data or binary data;

[0088] d. message—encapsulating a mail message;

[0089] e. image—still image data;

[0090] f. audio—audio or voice data; and

[0091] g. video—video or moving image data.

[0092] 3. Content-Transfer-Encoding header field—This field is used tospecify how the data is encoded to allow it to pass through mailtransports having data or character set limitations;

[0093] 4. Content-ID header field—This field is used to further identifythe data in the message body; and

[0094] 5. Content-Description header field—This field is used to furtherdescribe the data in the message body.

[0095] Thus, a plain text, ASCII e-mail message in accordance with theMIME standard would might have the following header field entries:

[0096] MIME-Version: MIME:Version 1.0

[0097] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=“us-ascii”

[0098] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

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[0101] In addition to these standard MIME headers MIME X header fieldsmay be used to extend this inventions capabilities. The method andapparatus for sending and receiving facsimile transmissions via e-mailover the Internet will now be further explained with reference to FIG.11.

[0102]FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the basic construction ofthe computer system which controls the operation of Applicant'sinvention. As FIG. 11 shows, the system includes a number ofinterrelated elements all operationally connected by a buss 201. Thesystem includes RAM memory 202 and ROM memory 203 where instructions andtemporary data storage areas of a computer program reside ane where inrom the ecom device unique identity may be stored in firmware. Thesystem also includes a display 204 and a keyboard 205 so that thevarious functions of the system and be initiated and observed. Display205 can be formed of a number of different devices including a liquidcrystal display, a cathode ray tube display and an LED display. Inaddition, a number of different configurations for keyboard 205 can beused. FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of a keyboard configuration inaccordance with the present invention.

[0103] The system further includes mass storage device 216 which allowthe system to store data to and receive programming instructions fromsuch devices as magnetic floppy disks and tape units.

[0104] A PCMCIA “Personal Computer Memory Card InternationalAssociation” card slot 206 also is provided. Slot 206 defines a 68-pininterface in accordance with current JEIDA PCMCIA standards with respectto physical and electrical specifications. Thus, Type I, Type II andType III PCMCIA cards can be used with the present invention. Such cardsinclude flash memory, RAM, and ROM, modem devices, LAN adapters,cellular telephone communication devices and mass storage devices suchas miniature hard disk drives.

[0105] A smart card slot 207 also is provided. The ability to use smartcards allows the system to be automatically configured in a particularway for a particular installation.

[0106] Also connected to buss 201 are various input/output (I/O)peripherals 208 which allow the system to communicate with the user andwith the outside world through such devices as printer 209, microphone210, serial port 211, parallel port 212, speaker 213, modem 214 andauxiliary port 215. Printer 209 may be selected from a number ofconventional printers known in the prior art. In addition, serial andparallel ports 211 and 212 conform to conventional port standards, alsoknown in the art.

[0107] Microphone 210 can be used to provide verbal commands to thesystem as well as permit the system to be used in a “telephone” mode inconjunction with speaker 213 and voice processor <?>. Modem 214 servesas the interface between the system and the telephone line.

[0108] Auxiliary port 215 permits other equipment to be easily connectedto the I/O port interface. Such equipment includes additional printers,modems, a video camera and image scanners and the like.

[0109] The heart of the system is central processing unit (CPU) 200which supervises the flow of information between the various elements ofthe system and which perform logic calculations and other functionsbased on instructions in the computer program stored in RAM 202, ROM203, a PCMCIA card inserted in PCMCIA slot 206 or a smart card insertedin smart card slot 207 and data associated with the program.

[0110] The system also includes a number of other features such as RJ11and RJ45 connectors and cellular, cable and satellyte communicationcababilities.

[0111] As the system illustrated in FIG. 11 provides all of thecapability of a computer system, it can be easily programmed as such toprovide multimedia recording through microphone 210 and a video cameraconnected to auxiliary port 215 and play back on display 204 and speaker213. The system may also be used in a video conferencing mode. In sodoing, the system has the ability to use any one of a number ofcompression/decompression algorithms (codecs). A codec is a system forremoving or restructuring data to decrease the size of a file. Codecsincludes

[0112] Cinepak

[0113] Intel Indeo Video R3.2

[0114] Intel Indeo Video Raw

[0115] Microsoft Video 1

[0116] Microsoft RLE

[0117] QuickTime

[0118] In accordance with the present invention, a standard class 1, 2,or 3 facsimile machine is directly connected to the system via one ofthe above described RJ11 telephone connectors. The user places adocument in the facsimile machine and dials a key code number. The keycode number identifies to the system which telecommunications form thetransmission of the document will take, i.e., direct dial to a remotesystem of the invention, direct dial to a remote facsimile machine ortransformation to MIME compliant e-mail and can be expanded to includeIPv6 addressing, thus enabling “old” facsimile machines to become IPdirectly addressable. In the direct IP embodiment of the invention a“virtual telephony circuit” is established between the devices and themodulated tones generated by the originating fax machine are firststored in a memory buffer a session based TCP connection is establishedbetween the 2 devices and T30 facsimile data types are encapsulated toidentify which modulations were used to generate the data and containthe phase C data that was obtained by the ecom device in its inventiveoperation. Once the “virtual circuit has been established andcapabilities exchanged the “buffered” data is sent to the receiving ecomdevice which “directly passes” facsimile image data to the connectedfacsimile machine. One skilled in the art will readily appreciate thatthe cpu, memory and asic capabilities of the invention can be embeddedin a facsimile machine removing the need for a separate ecom device.

[0119] While there are given above certain specific examples of thisinvention and its application in practical use, it should be understoodthat they are not intended to be exhaustive or to be limiting of theinvention. On the contrary, these illustrations and explanations hereinare given in order to acquaint others skilled in the art with thisinvention and the principles thereof and a suitable manner of itsapplication in practical use, so that others skilled in the art may beenabled to modify the invention and to adapt and apply it in numerousforms each as may be best suited to the requirement of a particular use.

I claim:
 1. An apparatus for sending and receiving digital image datafrom a computer network, wherein said digital image data carries anelectronic destination address and is transported over said computernetwork in accordance with standard network transmission protocols, saidapparatus comprising: network interface means for coupling saidapparatus to said computer network; apparatus address means for storinga unique electronic apparatus address for said apparatus; signalrecognition means for determining receive status information; addressreceiver means coupled to said network interface means for receivingsaid electronic destination address; address comparison means coupled tosaid apparatus address means and to said address receiver means forcomparing said electronic destination address to said unique apparatusaddress and providing a match signal when said two addresses are thesame; digital image data receiver means coupled to said networkinterface means, said address comparison means and to said signalrecognition means for receiving said digital image data when said matchsignal is provided.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1 furtherincluding encryption means connected to said conversion means and saidelectronic mail agent for selectively encoding/decoding said convertedelectronic mail data.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 1 furtherincluding a public/private key encryption means connected to saidconversion means and said electronic mail agent for selectivelyencoding/decoding said converted electronic mail date.
 4. An apparatusaccording to claim 1 further including a public/private key encryptionmeans which specifically utilizes the Rijndael encryption/decryptionalgorithms connected to said conversion means and said electronic mailagent for selectively encoding/decoding said converted electronic maildata.
 5. An apparatus according to claim 1 further including a secretkey encryption means connected to said conversion means and saidelectronic mail agent for selectively encoding/decoding said convertedelectronic mail data.
 6. An apparatus according to claim 1 furtherincluding a secret key encryption means which specifically utilizesencryption/decryption algorithms derived from Vernam ciphers connectedto said conversion means and said electronic mail agent for selectivelyencoding/decoding said converted electronic mail data.
 7. An apparatusaccording to claim 2 further including a public/private two keyencryption/decryption means together with means for accessing andretrieving a public key from a private address book.
 8. An apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein said electronic mail agent is a commercialmail agent and said mail server resident on the internet global areanetworks is a commercial server for said agent.
 9. An apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein said electronic mail agent is a public mailagent and said mail server resident on the internet global area networkis a public server.
 10. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein saidoutput means includes store/dial/connect circuitry to operativelyconnect the apparatus via said mail server resident on the internetglobal area network to a remote mail agent connected via a remote mailserver to said Internet Global Area Network.
 11. An apparatus accordingto claim 10 wherein said electronic management means includes a keypadinput device having at least send/receive functions; fax and e-mailaddress functions; and mail server, private address book, and faxmachine query functions for commanding operation of said apparatus. 12.An apparatus according to claim 11 further including an RJ 11 inputterminal connected to said signal recognition means for operativelyconnecting said apparatus to a class 1, 2, or 3 facsimile machinestandard output terminal.
 13. An apparatus according to claim 12 furtherincluding an RJ 11 output terminal connected to said output means foroperatively connecting said apparatus via a POTS line to said mailserver resident on the internet global area networks.
 14. An apparatusaccording to claim 13 wherein said apparatus is powered by a separate DCvoltage power supply operatively connected thereto and adapted to beconnected to a standard commercial AC power source.
 15. An apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein said conversion means includes electronicmeans for attaching/detaching native facsimile images to the electronicmail format data created by said conversion means fortransmission/reception over the internet global area networks.
 16. Anapparatus according to claim 15 wherein said electronic means includese-mail extender MIME protocol.
 17. An apparatus according to claim 15wherein said electronic means includes direct e-mail Ip addressing. 18.An apparatus according to claim 17 wherein said direct e-mail IPaddressing is a standard unique IP address on the internet global areanetworks.
 19. An apparatus according to claim 17 wherein said directe-mail IP addressing is a pseudo IP address on the internet global areanetworks.
 20. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said uniqueapparatus address is derived from the information embedded in thehardware of the apparatus.
 21. An apparatus according to claim 1 whereinsaid unique apparatus address is derived from the information obtainedfrom a global positioning satellite network connected to the hardware ofthe apparatus.
 22. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said uniqueapparatus address is derived from the information obtained frombiometric input connected to the hardware of the apparatus.
 23. Anapparatus according to claim 1 wherein said unique apparatus address isderived from the information obtained from behavioral input patternsconnected to the hardware of the apparatus.